balena-adguard VS DietPi

Younglings? You also should consider installing AdGuard Home on a mini PC, Raspberry Pi, etc. and using it for your home DNS server. AdGuard Home has a Family protection mode that blocks inappropriate sites and enforces safe browsing while also blocking ads and trackers.

I prefer AdGuard Home to Pi Hole. https://adguard.com/en/adguard-home/overview.html

AdGuard Home LXC - Network wide ad-blocker

Maybe try adguard home which is similar to pihole but has a feature where you can block specific websites and social media so seems more like what you are looking for: https://adguard.com/en/adguard-home/overview.html

You don't need a Raspberry Pi to run Pi-hole. You can run it in Docker. AdGuard Home is an alternative to Pi-hole.

Adguard home : https://adguard.com/en/adguard-home/overview.html

However, personally i recommend a selfhosted variant like PiHole or Adguard Home, which offer both network wide adblocking. The latter offers an easier setup and features out of the box.

DietPi is a lightweight Debian based Linux distribution for SBCs and server systems, with the option to install desktop environments, too. It ships as minimal image but allows to install complete and ready-to-use software stacks with a set of console based shell dialogs and scripts.

The source code is hosted on GitHub: https://github.com/MichaIng/DietPi

That's a good point, but the array of devices supported by the DietPi team is extensive: https://dietpi.com/

Before someone starts the usual yadda yadda about the RPi biger community, the OS not having long time support etc. I would repeat one more time: do not rely on board vendor supplied images; this is valid for pretty much all boards. Just go to Armbian or DietPi pages and you'll almost certainly find one or more images that work on your board and forums to discuss about them with very knowledgeable people.

https://www.armbian.com/download/

https://dietpi.com/#download

Those projects are well worth a contribution, as they don't have a giant like Broadcom behind them.

> bananapi do a lot of boards but their software story has been a bit poor

This is quite common with other board manufacturers too. I'd rather suggest to ignore completely their cobbled together distros, often also tainted by proprietary modifications, that become unmaintained in a few years, and see if they're among the many supported by Armbian or DietPi.

https://www.armbian.com/download/

https://dietpi.com/#download

The full release notes can be found at: https://dietpi.com/docs/releases/v8_25/

RPi OS = diet pi https://dietpi.com/ - initial config via text file - SDcard burning out partially mitigated as writes log files to ram then flushes to SDcard reducing write cycles

You could also try very minimalistic distros like TwisterUI or DietPi which are most known for their use in the RasprebbyPi / SBC computers but which also have editions for desktop / laptop.